Vanille Caviar is a fragrance "greedy, woody, matte".according to its designer, Alexandra Carlin, senior perfumer at IFF. The sixth creation in BDK Parfums' Matières collection, Vanille Caviar is a fragrance with vanilla processed to the extreme, elevated to the rank of a noble material. The creamy vanilla is black, dense and textured, yet with a hint of clarity. A raw, precious material, like plant caviar.
Like a monochrome, the fragrance revolves around this single olfactory raw material, revealed in all its nuances by extract CO₂ and absolute. Cocoa and resinous materials - balsam of Peru and cistus labdanum - unfold all its richness and depth. At the heart, a caviar accord of vanilla with salty, mineral accents, as precious as it is singular. All around, subtle contrasts: the freshness of cardamom, the fruity brightness of blackcurrant, the warmth of cocoa beans.
"For Vanille Caviar I was inspired by a trip to Madagascar in 2017. I still remember that smell in the vanilla plantations. That of the pods, dark and shiny, almost liquorish, both powerful and deeply sensual. When I mentioned this memory to Alexandra Carlin, she immediately recalled her first trip to the red island in the Indian Ocean. Like me, she remembered the moment when the soft, fat, fleshy pod, just split open, reveals its precious black caviar-like seeds, with their gourmand, almost liquorish, deeply sensual scent. Vanille Caviar brings to life this memory of a lover of fine materials.says David Benedek, founder of BDK Parfums.
According to David Benedek, Vanille Caviar represents a completely different proposition from Vanille Leather, the perfume house's other creation, a more abstract, leathery interpretation. "Vanille Caviar is a carnal and literal approach to the pod, very natural, which can be both sweet and animalic," emphasizes the founder of BDK Parfums.
"In Vanille Caviar I wanted to explore the intimate flesh of vanilla, to plunge to the heart of its pod, when you open it and it oozes that shiny black nectar. A liquorish, amber and spicy addiction that left an indelible trace in my perfumery memory during my first trip to Madagascar. The squares of pods, lined up slightly apart, drying in the sun, create an alternation of matte and shiny blacks reminiscent of Soulages paintings. That's how I built this perfume, using layers of thick, dense materials, balms, resins, powders, and working its shiny, luminous caviar."explains Alexandra Carlin.
